Lucky

Well, I am at 100 pages so far, and I am not sure how many more I will read. The writing is terrific, the social commentary biting, but the main story is about this alcoholic who has lost his teeth yet tries to lure younger women for sex so he can, with his false teeth, bite them and suck their blood. This excites him to the point that he decides to get sober so that he can enjoy the moments to their fullest. And so far, he has done that. But I am not into blood, and the lengthy descriptions he gives of the women's beauty do not do much for me. He does seem to be condescending to the world and see himself as better than the rest of us, even those of us who have our teeth and have not met the demons that he has met, so very up close and personal too. No doubt the book has its readership, but it is due back to the library on Monday, and it will go back even if I have not finished it.

The News also has a story on a world-wide outbreak of norovirus, which causes projectile vomiting and severe diarrhea. No blame there as it goes around frequently, usually getting cruise ship passengers. It sounds horrible to have- just several days of misery with no medicine to provide relief. http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/new-stomach-bug-strain-sweeps-united-states-article-1.1248303

Our posting colleague citylaw was named today by the NY Daily News as the one responsible for the flu virus in New York. I bring you the stunning headline here: RELATED: BLAME CITY LAW FOR YOUR NASTY FLU

The Sapphire Card is better though, or so I think. But I am glad that you like the thread. Keep on flying.

For my first sleep study, I was awake all night. For my last study, I slept almost all night. The last doc still tried to sell me on sleep apnea aids even though I had only six points on the scale. Some people have a hundred. I didn't buy it. But I still have insomnia at least one night a week.

Me. I am, as you might expect, a Top Contributor at Trip Advisor with about 130 reviews. They are all credible. I have 600 reviews at Barnes & Noble and over 100 at Amazon. Lots of people just like me are trying to share their thoughts. The ones with a long track record are usually the ones more credible.

He could easily have one more trick if he just called me!

Well, glutes, it is nice to see that you have not lost your ability to find threads buried in the archives. You must have a great memory or a super-skillful search engine!

My husband once waited in line for hours to get an autographed pair of underwear signed by Marky Mark and Calvin Klein as a gift for me. I still have them! They came with a large poster something like the one above, but with Marky wearing a beautiful smile. The poster still hangs, this time in my bathroom, where I see it every day. It is such a joyful celebration of male sexuality. And I am impressed with what the man did with his career. He doesn't bore me at all.

That could be a hard job.

We should start a collection to get lurkerspeaks to Broadway! Kinky Boots might be just the musical to break him in on!

Award travel may sound like fun, but it's usually coach we fly. Those long trips to Asia are hard for someone of my ever growing size. I did it when I was younger much better, but arthritis doesn't help the knees endure ten to twelve hours on a plane to Tokyo, followed by another eight to Bangkok. I think growing older just makes it harder, but then I remember that my traveling companion on my early flights to Bangkok was in his late seventies and never complained once! Weren't the planes bigger and softer back then? (1987)

I'm trying to stir up some interest in that book review on the Council of Trent. The reviewer has some interesting observations upon which you might like to comment!

"As for Lucky's offer: thank you. I'll accept Zander in my bed. But, does that require a contract stating I won't go on a nutty adventure?" YES! I do like the last rule, though: The don't come if you are a wimp rule Sometimes people get the wrong idea and find themselves with slightly browned pants and a furious rage on when they discover the Rickshaw Run is not a Thompson beach holiday. This is boring for us to deal with, so do think about the reality of putting your life in danger and being smelly and uncomfortable for two weeks. Bliss for some, less so for others.

I really did think this might be of interest to someone here. The Council of Trent determined so much of what we were taught as young Catholics. Now we get to learn how that came about. There are those of us who think our Catholic education, while good in so many ways, was also an abuse of innocent young minds on such topics as sex. And yet these very guys weren't so innocent themselves. The reviewer writes: On the humbler clerical level, the council debated, and eventually tabled, the issue of whether priests should be allowed to marry. In many places, they already lived openly with a mistress or wife. But what about the popes? During the 16th century, forceful Italian aristocrats connived to be elected to the chair of Peter, made cardinals out of teenage nephews, and fathered children by concubines before and during their papacies. He prefaces the entire review with a very good question on the value of history today. Is he right? Please discuss! "History overflows with conflicts, treaties, personalities, religious and political ­controversies and all sorts of paradigm-shifting events that are, for many of us, just names. What happened at the Battle of Manzikert? Why do we care about the Edict of Nantes — and its Revocation? How does a Whig differ from a Tory? What is Pelagianism? Who was Michael Bakunin? Yes, we can now type in these names and Wikipedia will supply us with quick answers. Yet once, people worked hard to possess the past, to absorb the main currents and facts of history: Such knowledge provided a ground to understanding the present. No more. These days we don’t bother to remember that “old stuff,” i.e., everything that took place before our own birth: Our search engines will do that for us."

Totally Oz is without a doubt one of the most adventurous posters here, but we owe it to ourselves if not to him to save him from something so dangerous. Maybe we should take donations to get that guy Zander from the Phillipines over to stop Oz from any risky activity. Assuming that Zander himself is not dangerous!

The opening and several more shows of Barry Manilow at the St. James Theater have been postponed as the singer is ill. He apparently has a bad case of bronchitis and cannot sing. He was, however, able to attend a street-naming event wherein 44th Street, the home of the St. James, was named Barry Manilow Way. It is an honorary designation and will not affect mailing addresses. Manilow has tacked on the postponed shows to the end of the run. Hopes now are that the first show will be on Tuesday. New York has suffered a rash of flu and other illnesses, along with a bitter cold ever since Lucky left town earlier this month. Even gay former mayor Ed Koch was hospitalized. Manilow himself is a resident of Palm Springs, where temperatures have recently been rather balmy since Lucky returned to the area.

We don't know that anyone did hit him. It could just be his latest effort to extend his 15 minutes. Arguments would be made that if she did hit him, a man of his size could have easily defended himself. But, she is his wife, and he may not have wanted to take any action that would hurt her. Thus we await more information.

The National Enquirer is not a citation? But it's true that I did not read the Enquirer report, only a summary in the NY Post. Even serious subjects have their elements of humor, Bud. And to date the assault on Levi is not substantiated.

Now, I guess thanks to Google, my web pages have ads for this novel. Or is the devil behind it? I can tell you one thing, Nick Tosches is a fierce writer, and this novel is something to be savored rather than gulped down. (That explains why I have only read 20 pages so far!)

The book itself may not interest you, but the book review does such a good job of summarizing what sounds like an interesting book that I recommend it to all who have any interest in religious history. It's a book by a Jesuit historian on the Council of Trent, which established back in the 1500's much of the doctrine I was taught in Catholic school. Many of the things we think came from Christ were actually political decisions made at this council of warring interests. Rather than a group of holy men accepting wisdom from God, these guys were interested much more in their finances and girlfriends. It's an interesting read: http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/trent-what-happened-at-the-council-by-john-w-omalley/2013/01/23/85f29658-618f-11e2-a389-ee565c81c565_story.html?hpid=z11

Hey, he's the victim here.

Speak for yourself!

I would support a forum for art movies that are not gay related.